Product of the Week: Eight Sleep Pod 4 Uses AI to Power Better Sleep - Athletech News

Nov 07, 2024

Eight Sleep has generated a lot of buzz in the wellness world for its revolutionary approach to sleep health. Recognizing the power of heating and cooling to unlock better sleep, Eight Sleep Founder Matteo Franceschetti released the Pod in 2019. This year, Eight Sleep released the highly anticipated Pod 4, which has the latest and greatest technology for thermoregulation and biometric tracking.

A super-powered mattress topper that can transform a normal bed into a sleep improvement device, the Pod 4 has more features than ever. Eight Sleep has invested in AI, improving its Autopilot feature (which adjusts one’s bed temperature throughout the night and tracks sleep quality). But is the high price of the Pod 4 worth it? Athletech News put the Eight Sleep Pod 4 to the test, comparing it against competitors and previous models.

Pros

The Pod 4 is a high-tech mattress cover, which is particularly convenient for those who want thermoregulation and biometric tracking technology but don’t want to buy a whole new mattress. Unlike previous Pod versions, the small tubes and wires throughout the device are undetectable when users lie down.

What sets Eight Sleep apart from other bed-cooling systems is that it’s powered with AI through its Autopilot feature. The technology tracks your sleep and adjusts throughout the night to your body temperature. Upon setting up your Eight Sleep account, users put in their age, biological age, if they share their bed, and sleep schedule.

Compared to previous versions of the device, the Pod 4’s setup was faster and easier. One key difference of the new version is that it no longer recommends hydrogen peroxide for setup, just water. It was nice not to have to buy an additional item to get started.

Eight Sleep provides very simple instructions on the app for setting up. Users just need to strip the bed and stretch the topper across the mattress. The tubing that connects the mattress topper to the Hub (which stores water and powers the device) is thin and flexible enough that it can weave around a headboard and around other furniture. Although the Hub is large, its design is sleek enough that it will blend into most bedroom aesthetics easily. The Hub also holds around two liters of water, which means it only requires replacement every 2-3 months.

The cover heats and cools from 110 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, with each person sleeping on the bed able to set their preferred temperature. Thirty minutes before one’s scheduled bedtime, the Pod 4 gets to work preparing its temperature. Users can set the temperature anywhere between 55 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit either through the app or by tapping the side of the cover (it’s a little tricky to get to work, but in theory helps keep users off their phones during the night).

Although I am a warm sleeper, I still enjoy the Eight Sleep’s warming feature before bed and then the adjustment features throughout the night to ensure that I remain comfortable without overheating. Prior to the device, I found myself waking up a few times a week from being overly cold or overly warm, which doesn’t happen anymore.

I also found the sleep-tracking device interesting and compared its findings against my wearables. Compared to Oura and Whoop, the Eight Sleep is consistently a little bit more generous reporting back on my sleep quality, finding that I had longer and higher-quality rest. It provides stats like heart rate, heart rate variability, breath rate, time spent snoring, and sleep latency (how long it takes you to fall asleep).

One new feature is snoring recognition. The Pod 4, unlike previous models, recognizes, exactly when users snore. This could be helpful for those trying new sleep positions or products to mitigate their snoring and want a nightly progress report. It is accurate down to the minute, for those who want detailed data.

Cons

The Pod 4 isn’t cheap, but it might be worth the investment if you want to improve your sleep quality. The Pod itself is $2500, and the paid subscription for an Eight Sleep account costs $17 a month. The company requires that you purchase a subscription for the first year of the Pod. If you choose to cancel the subscription after the first year, you can use the temperature controls but can no longer schedule temperature changes, use the vibrational alarms, or use the Autopilot feature.

In theory, I was excited about the vibration alarm clock feature, but I found that, in practice, it was not personally a great fit. The mattress pad physically vibrates to wake up users without an audible alarm clock. Although the vibration is effective, it is also a little jarring first thing in the morning. The tapping feature works well to shut it off though, so if you prefer the physical wakeup versus a standard alarm, the feature could be a good fit for you.

Overall, the Eight Sleep Pod 4 is worth the investment, as it has the power to level up your sleep quality using high-tech thermoregulation and biometric tracking. Those who already have a wearable might be tempted to get a cheaper thermoregulation device, but they would likely be hard-pressed to find one with the AI-powered adjustment throughout the night that drives higher sleep quality.

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